Bremerhaven's German Emigration Center

A Museum Recreating Germany’s 19th-Century Port of Departure

Mar 12, 2009 Amy Eckert

The German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven marks the North Sea port where millions of European emigrants set sail for America and beyond.

Opened in 2005, Germany’s emigration museum recounts the emigrant experience with costumed models, recreated ship’s quarters and family histories written in the travelers’ own words. The museum is appropriately located inside a building that resembles a wooden ship, its white, concrete wings looking like sails. It is a powerful experience for genealogy researchers and those simply interested in learning their family’s history.

Approximately 7.2 million Europeans emigrated Bremerhaven by sea between 1830 and 1974, according to Sabine Wacker of the German Emigration Center, making the city Germany’s largest departure port. 4.1 million Germans and 3.1 million Eastern Europeans left home via Bremerhaven for the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and beyond.

Preparing to Leave

The German Emigration Center experience begins when museum visitors purchase their tickets. Each guest receives a Boarding Pass with an iCard identifying one of 15 actual Bremerhaven emigrants. The iCard, when placed before scanners displayed throughout the museum, reveals biographical details, genealogy information, video and sound clips and other family history specific to the individual on the Boarding Pass.

Visitors to this Bremerhaven museum walk through a recreated Waiting Hall to discover the history of Bremerhaven during peak emigration years before departing for a recreated wharf. Life-size mannequins represent European emigrants, dressed in 19th-century clothing, speaking a mix of languages and laden with travel cases bearing a few garments, a comb and straight razor, soap and a toothbrush, perhaps a few photographs of family members left behind.

Life at Sea

When German Emigration Center visitors climb aboard the steamship “Lahn” they discover what shipboard life was like for those who emigrated through Bremerhaven 100 years ago. In model living quarters museum visitors view tiny washrooms, sparsely furnished galleys and the narrow, crowded bunks typical of 19th-century sea voyages.

Visitors complete their emigration museum experience in a meticulously reproduced Ellis Island, final destination for thousands of Bremerhaven emigrants. Museum guests learn of the interviews conducted by American immigration agents, including questions about their health status, family history, and religious and political practices. Visitors also learn that some immigrants were rejected upon reaching the new port, sent back home on the very ships that brought them.

Tracing the Emigrants’ Paths

Visitors to the German Emigration Center with an interest in geneology research conclude their museum visit in the Forum Migration. There they delve into their own family history through the museum's electronic archives and computerized genealogy records. Trained staff assist with research and visitors discover whether their family tree has roots in Bremerhaven.

It’s impossible for a museum to perfectly recreate the experiences of the millions of European emigrants who left Germany for America and points beyond. But the German Emigration Center goes a long way toward enlightening its visitors.

All exhibits, captions and audio stations at the German Emigration Center are in German and English. Learn more about the German Emigration Center and other things to do in Bremerhaven at their websites.

The copyright of the article Bremerhaven's German Emigration Center in W Europe Travel is owned by Amy Eckert. Permission to republish Bremerhaven's German Emigration Center in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, Germany	German Emigration Center museum, On the Wharf	Recreated sailing ship Bremen departs Germany
Recreated steamship Lahn transports emigrants	Forum Migration geneology research center